Wickham Bushes Romano-British settlement

Reasons for Designation

Romano-British aggregate villages are nucleated settlements formed by groups of five or more subsistence level farmsteads enclosed either indivdually or collectively, or with no formal boundary. Most enclosures, where they occur, are formed by curvilinear walls or banks, sometimes surrounded by ditches, and the dwellings are usually associated with pits, stock enclosures, cultivation plots and field systems, indicating a mixed farming economy. In use throughout the Roman period (c.43-450 AD), they often occupied sites of earlier agricultural settlements. Romano-British aggregate villages are a very rare monument type with examples recorded in the north of England and on the chalk downlands of Wessex and Sussex. Their degree of survival will depend upon the intensity of subsequent land use. In view of their rarity, all positively identified examples with surviving remains are considered to merit protection.

The Romano-British settlement in Wickham Bushes is known from part excavation and surface finds to cover a large area which has remained undisturbed by development since the Roman period. As a result, well preserved archaeological deposits will contain structural, artefactual and environmental evidence for its construction, occupation and the landscape in which it was built.

Details

The monument includes the buried remains of a small linear Roman settlement or town which was established along a minor road running from the main London to Silchester road which is situated less that 400m to the south. A series of archaeological excavations and survey work has demonstrated that the settlement was occupied throughout the Roman period and included a mixture of dwellings, agricultural structures and small semi-industrial workshops. The buried remains of a number of large, multi-roomed buildings with tiled roofs have been identified. These were first built in the years immediately following the Roman invasion of AD 43 and the building of the main road. It is likely that the settlement expanded because of its association with trade along the road, and it may have had an official mansio building where messengers and imperial officials could stop to rest or change horses. Large quantities of pottery, a brooch and other artefacts suggest a series of successive phases of occupation well into the 4th century AD.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

28176

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
PRN 00412.00.000, SMRO, Road, Loop, (1983)
S.M.R.O., Wickham Bushes Romano-British Settlement, (1983)
S.M.R.O., Wickham Bushes Romano-British Settlement, (1983)

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